It is observed that quite a lot of small and micro business owners share their company’s products or services on their personal social media accounts. Apart from giving their friends a peek into their desperation to seek business, it doesn’t help much. An individual’s social media account is confined in terms of reach to only that person’s limited number of connections. It definitely does not open any new avenues for business.
Social Media isn’t the only way to market or promote your business on digital platform. There needs to be a holistic business plan to run a digital marketing campaign. If you are not aware or equipped to handle it on your own, it is suggested to hire a professional or an agency with a defined budget to see quantifiable benefits. You may start your digital marketing campaign keeping the following things in mind:
1. Define your target market
This may include all the people from all prospective locations of a particular age, gender, profession and interests. It is suggested to always narrow down your target market to the specific targeted audience in order to follow a focussed approach and keep your budget spends limited.
2. Plan a budget spend
Typically large organizations spend around 8% of their revenues towards marketing. For a smaller organization, it is recommended to spend around 3 – 5% of revenues towards marketing. This budget should be divided into various spending streams.
3. Identify effective ways of marketing online
Given that there are multiple ways of reaching out prospective consumers, the organization needs to identify the most appropriate medium to allocate funds. Funds should be allocated as per consumers’ presence at different platforms. For example: local home services spend more on Google Adwords or SEO; apparel companies spend more on promoting their products through fashion bloggers who have huge following on social media accounts.
4. Content Development
For companies running their social media handles to promote their businesses, it is of utmost importance to create content on a regular basis. There need to be dedicated people aligned to create new content which keeps the followers engaged and maintains the activity on the pages or accounts.
5. Identify correct and relevant hashtags
Hashtags play a pivotal role in directing traffic. Be it social media posts or even website, there needs to be a list of hashtags to be identified and used as per the nature of business.
6. Analyse, interpret & re-launch
As a business owner who reviews financial performance of the business, it is critical to learn the impact of various digital marketing campaigns. This learning should be applied to identify various digital marketing techniques applied and analyze which one was most impactful.
